Cahokia/Ancient America’s Great City

I’ve read that more than 20’000 residents lived in the 11th and 12th century in Cahokia, city then bigger than London at the time. The tribe’s disappearance in the 12th century seems to be quite mysterious! Unfortunately they didn’t have a written language similar to the Incas in Peru.

You can watch the video, read the summary and answer some multiple choice questions about the content. Click here for the summary and questions CAHOKIA1 or do a drag and drop exercise: (You can correct your answers online.)

From the above video we learn that a great number of years ago there was a city along the river Mississipi called Cahokia. It stood 6 miles from present day St.Louis/Missouri and dominated the heart of the Continent. At it’s center it had a powerful leader who came down from the sun and had seen from on high that people on this planet had no master and wanted to govern others but were not capable to conduct themselves.

A thousand years ago Great Sun, both Pope and King, lived on top of a royal, manmade mountain, 10 storeys high, higher than any pyramid in Egypt. In order to live in peace he wanted the following points to be respected and therefore said:

– “We must never kill anyone but in defence of our own lives.”

– “We must never know any woman besides our own.”

– “We must never take any thing that belongs to another.”

– “We must never lie, nor get drunk.”

– “We must not be avaricious.”

– “We must give generously with joy and share our subsistence with

– those who are in need of it.”

The Great Sun ruled the thriving center of a vast Mississipian culture. Outside the city’s walls communities of farmers, hunters and fishermen stretched for miles surrounded by fields and corn.

With 20’000 inhabitants no city in the USA would surpass Cahokia’s historic size before eighteen hundred. Only then would Philadelphia eclipse the ancient center.

Priests and royalties lived in substantive houses, not tipis and they were sedentary. With the Mississipi and other rivers as its highways, Cahokia was linked by trade to 1/3 of the continent.

Copper arrived from the great lakes, obsidian from the Yellowstone, gold and silver from Canada and shell from the Gulf of Mexico. The Indians also seemed to have had a good time with feast when the women put together corn and they would roast a deer. The guests would, of course, bring gifts. The Cahokians were magnificently dressed .

Cahokia was the pinnacle of a mound building culture. Thousands of mountains still dot the landscapes around the Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico. A funeral mound in the Ohio region was three storey’s high. This meant for 100 men to carry baskets of earth for one year.

Only few mounds compare with the religious effigy, the Great Serpent mound.It is 50 miles east on Cincinnati and this enormous snake stretches over 400 yards. The earthworks was the most important legacy. Of their smaller creations

only glimpses remain of the people who changed the course of life on the northern Continent. Wooden buildings, baskets, boats, woven textiles, leather footwear and clothes have long turned to dust.

Last but not least the speaker in the video said that the people didn’t worship the sun but what was behind it.